Steve Sharp sometimes has to bite his tongue when questioned by footy fans about the Bendigo Pioneers.
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More often than not, the club’s regional talent manager is questioned about wins and losses, with the latter outweighing the former.
An e-mail this week from AFL Victoria chief executive officer Steven Reaper, himself a former Bendigo Pioneers star, reinforced Sharp’s philosophy on the Pioneers and the TAC Cup.
One of Reaper’s quotes, in particular, hit home with Sharp.
“As always it isn’t about winning, but rather creating the best possible environment for those people coming through the pathway to get the best out of themselves,” Reaper wrote.
Winning is not the first priority of the Pioneers, development is.
“It is a development program. Everyone gets wound up in the wins and losses because that’s the nature of footy,’’ Sharp said.
“We think this program is working and we’ll continue to try and make it better, so that everyone that comes through the system gets the best opportunity to improve.”
The Pioneers’ region covers from Kyneton in the south to Mildura in northern Victoria and across to Broken Hill in New South Wales.
The first thing Sharp noted when he took over the regional talent manager’s role 18 months ago was the club’s lack of resources, particularly from a football aspect.
“Our number one priority was to put more investment in the footy department because we were so under resourced compared to the other clubs,’’ Sharp said.
“We are challenged geographically because other clubs can get all their players together at least once a week. We don’t get our whole list together once for the season.
“It is a talent program and it’s about giving kids in our region a chance to become better footballers.
“We’ve worked really hard to give kids in our region every chance to get better.
“Our footy department continues to grow. This year we’ve added Rick Ladson, who has great credibility through his 125 games and a premiership in the AFL and his coaching back here at inter-league and club level.
“We’ve also added Brett Warburton, who spent a year with Carlton and coached Shepparton Swans to its first premiership in 50 years in the GVFNL.
“As we continue to build our footy department the players are going to benefit.”
The next step for Sharp and the Pioneers is a major partnership with La Trobe University in Bendigo.
The Pioneers and La Trobe are working together to develop a high performance centre that they hope will be the envy of the competition.
“We have lecture theatres, video and conference facilities for players to come in and receive feedback, we’re developing a football ground here with La Trobe and a world-class gymnasium,’’ Sharp said.
“We already had a great partnership with La Trobe, but it was a no-brainer to move our offices here and build an even closer relationship. We’re very excited about the future.”
The Pioneers are confident the partnership with La Trobe University and establishment of elite facilities will help the club keep players in Bendigo.
“Traditionally, we’ve lost a lot of kids to boarding schools in other regions,’’ Sharp said.
“We’re starting to turn that around. We have six players who are at boarding schools in Geelong and Melbourne, but they have committed to playing with the Pioneers when school commitments allow them to play.
“It shows they have a lot of faith in the program.
“All up this year we have about 20 kids on our list this year that don’t live under the same roof as their parents. 10 or 11 of those have relocated to Bendigo.
“A lot of kids want to come to Bendigo from our northern areas like Mildura and Swan Hill because they don’t want to miss out on the opportunity of playing in the TAC Cup.
“It’s a challenge for us because we don’t have the private schools available that other clubs do. The Rebels (Ballarat) have St Pats and players get attracted to going to school there and the Rebels get them as players.”
Another major change for the Pioneers in the past 18 months is the return of home matches to the Queen Elizabeth Oval.
The club was playing home games at its training base at Epsom-Huntly Recreation Reserve, but move back to the QEO has been well received by players and AFL recruiters.
“AFL recruiters come to the QEO. I know for a fact that if we are playing at Epsom the AFL recruiters have second thoughts about coming up,’’ Sharp said.
“That reduces the opportunity our kids get in front of AFL recruiters, so we have an obligation to the kids to play home games at the QEO.
“Epsom-Huntly is a great facility and serves a purpose. We get to train on two AFL grounds…it’s a great training and academy facility.
“For us, we’re never going to get a world-class gym built there and we’re never going to get the access to health and science departments that we will get at La Trobe.”
The Pioneers’ 2017 season starts on Saturday against the Murray Bushrangers at Punt Rd Oval.
It will be the first game in charge for new coach Rick Coburn.
As usual, the result will be the first thing people look at.
“It would be great if we could win more games this year than we did last year, but that won’t be how the success of the program will be rated,’’ Sharp said.
“There’s a much bigger picture to look at than just wins and losses.”
Everyone gets wound up in the wins and losses because that’s the nature of footy.
- Steve Sharp